Co-submitters are any delegates who have either participated in the construction of this resolution (e.g. merging, contributing clauses) or alternatively have signed that they would like to see this resolution debated in committee.

FORUM: Ecology and Environment
QUESTION OF: Finding Measures to Prevent and Combat Wildfires
SUBMITTED BY: Japan
CO-SUBMITTERS: Ukraine, Cambodia, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, India,

THE ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE,

Recognising that between July 2019 and February 2020 in Australia NSW Rural Fire Service reported the 11, 264 wildfires burnt 5.4 million hectares of land, destroyed 2, 439 homes, and around 24 megalitres of fire retardant,

Reminds member nations of the devastation of the Amazon Rainforest when more than 40,000 wildfires burned over 19 million acres of the world's largest tropical rainforest in Brazil between 2019 and 2020, and the difficulties of trying to put them out,

Concerned ecologists and organisations fear that there is danger in Australia losing a high percentage of many Australian native plants and animal species die to the combined effects of habitat fragmentation,

Alarmed by wildfires are projected to rise by 50 per cent by the end of the century due to the climate crisis and changes in land use, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was used.

1. Requests the creation of the United Nations Wildfire Prevention and Woodland Preservation Committee (UNWPWP) that will work as a unilateral task force with all relevant NGOs and relevant member states susceptible to this threat that will be responsible for:
a) Actively manage landscapes across all jurisdictions to make them resilient to fire related disturbances
b) Organising efforts to reduce wildland firefighter injuries, illnesses, and fatalities
c) Informing citizens of wildfires in their location and if evacuation is necessary;

2. Calls for the creation of a mass media campaign using methods such as billboards and advertising to educate the public on areas such as but not limited to:
a. The long-term negative effects that smoke from wildfires has on the lungs of those living in wildfire prone areas
b. The economic downsides of the rapidly increasing abundance of wildfires across the world in the last few years
c. How to safely dispose of fires in wildfire prone areas to help prevent the risk of manmade wildfires;

3. Urges an increase of research and development into preventive measures such as but not limited to:
a. Wetlands restoration
b. Reintroduction of native species, or in certain conditions artificially placed animals to reduce vegetation levels
c. Building infrastructure at a distance from vegetation and in turn preserving open space buffers for flames
d. Using native grasses to block invasive competitors
e. The use of Native American cultural burning, in which small parts of forests are burned in a contained manner to maintain and promote tree health and prevent out of control fires
f. Augmented reality technologies such as C-Thru to help frontline helitack crews better combat wildfires
g. Research into new types of chemical treatment to deal with wildfires such as viscoelastic fluids;

4. Requests the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) give grants to member nations to combat the spread of wildfires by
a. Funding the formation and maintenance of helitack groups, smokejumpers, large air tankers and helicopters in areas that are prone to large scale wildfires
b. Funding the usage of chemical flame retardants such as ammonium polyphosphate;

5. Recommends the complete ban of drone flying in areas of active wildfire where it prevents helicopters from extinguishing the flames, while respecting local regulations on civilian drone flying;

6. Further calls for the creation of an annual conference to be held in Nairobi Kenya to discuss topics, such as but not limited to discussing the progress of the implementation of the resolution.